Designed & produced by Eric Maclewis
© ericdentinger.com
2008-2024

SOUNDCLOUD
YOUTUBE
BANDCAMP


Smile In Your Sleep
- The Corries version -
(Jim McLean)

Hush, hush, time to be sleeping
Hush, hush, dreams come a-creeping
Dreams of peace and of freedom
So smile in your sleep, bonny baby


Once our valleys were ringing
With songs of our children singing
But now sheep bleat in the evening
And shillings lie empty and broken

(chorus)

We stood with heads bowed in prayer
While factors burned our cottages bare
The flames licked the clear mountain air
And many were dead by the morning

(chorus)

Where was our fierce Highland mettle?
Our men once so fearless in battle
Now stand cowed, huddled like cattle
And wait to be shipped o'er the ocean

(chorus)

No use in crying or pleading
Gone, gone, all hope of staying
So hush, hush, the anchor's a-weighing
Don't cry in your sleep, bonny baby

(chorus)


Chì Mi Na Mór Bheanna
(Iain Cameron)

O chì, chì mi na mòr-bheanna
O chì, chì mi na còrr-bheanna
O chì, chì mi na coireachan
Chì mi na sgoran fo cheò


Chì mi gun dàil an t-àite san d'rugadh mi
Cuirear orm fàilte sa chànain a thuigeas m
iGheibh mi ann aoigh agus gràdh nuair a ruigeam
Nach reicinn air tunnachan òir

(séist = chorus)

Chì mi an coilltean, chì mi an doireachan
Chì mi an maghan bàna is torraiche
Chì mi na féidh air làr nan coireachan
Falaicht' an trusgan fo cheò

(séist)

Beanntaichean àrda is àillidh leacainnean
Sluagh an-còmhnaidh còire cleachdainnean
'S aotrom mo cheum a' leum g'am faicinn
O fanaidh mi tacan le deòin

(séist)

Fàilt air na gorm-mheallaibh, tolmach, thulachnach
Fàilt air na corr-bheannaibh mòra is mulanach
Fàilt air na coilltean, fàilt air na h-uile
O! 's sona bhith fuireach 'nan còir

O chì, chì mi na mòr-bheanna
O chì, chì mi na còrr-bheanna
O chì, chì mi na coireachan
Chì mi na sgoran fo cheò

The bagpipe score begins by the chorus like the song.
The original tune could come from England: Johnny Stays Long At The Fair, adapted in a mournful version for bagpipe, often played at funerals.

The score is in the Scots Guards (vol.1) with a mistake widely used on the internet: according to various recordings (starting with one of the Scots Guards in 1950), the second beat on bar 4 is wrong; I've made the necessary correction.

Each part can be played two times as usual, but I often play only once because I prefer follow the song.
The song or the instrumental are played at various tempi from about 41 to 50 : a “working base” of 42 BPM can be a good start and then tempo will depend on the piper and the type of audience.

One set of lyrics are from Iain Cameron (Ballachulish, Lochaber - near Glencoe) written in 1856:
Chì Mi Na Mór Bheanna or with the original title of Dùil ri Baile a’ Chaolais Fhaicinn (Hoping To See Ballachulish).
One can find them in English with at least two versions entitled The Mist Covered Mountains (Of Home).
I prefer the Gaelic version that has some more verses than displayed here.

Jim McLean wrote also in 1968 some beautiful lyrics called Smile In Your Sleep or Hush, Hush, about the Highland Clearances that followed Culloden.

The Mist Covered Mountains - Smile In Your Sleep

- score written by Eric Maclewis with CelticPipes

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